Routine absences at work cause others on your team to pick up your slack. It places an extra burden on the company, the supervisor and your co-workers. When you are consistently absent, your income is also impacted. Excessive absenteeism frustrates employers and co-workers alike. It can negatively influence productivity, impact employee morale and, in small companies, it can have a negative affect on the company's bottom line.
Resentment
In companies with tight staffing, when one person is consistently absent, others on the team still have to do the work. This can cause resentment toward the absent employee on behalf of those who step in for her. People get frustrated and angry when they have to do their own job and someone else's too. This leads to low morale in the office when management does nothing about the errant employee. When a person makes an agreement with an employer to do a job, continuous absenteeism is a violation of that agreement.
Poor Performance
A person that continually misses work gets left behind on the changes that take place. When she does show up to work, her performance suffers because she's lost time on the project. Others have to step in to bring her up to date, which causes further delays in production or services offered. Besides resulting in poor employee performance, a company's customers can also suffer because of excessive absenteeism.
Reduced Quality and Productivity
When a critical person is missing, the work has to be reorganized, which affects the staff's overall productivity. With less people to do the job, something is going to suffer in the process, because not as much work is accomplished when someone is missing. If employees try to catch up by working faster, quality suffers.
Management Practices
When a company doesn't manage excessive absenteeism, other employees might get tired of doing double duty for the missing employee. Good employees might look for work elsewhere, which can result in a high turnover rate. When management doesn't deal with excessive absenteeism effectively, they are sending a message that they don't care about the issue or their valued employees. Good management practices begin with developing attendance policies and end with properly managing excessive absenteeism when it arises.
References
Writer Bio
As a native Californian, artist, journalist and published author, Laurie Brenner began writing professionally in 1975. She has written for newspapers, magazines, online publications and sites. Brenner graduated from San Diego's Coleman College.